Monthly Archives: November 2009

Nights are drawing in, it’s time to start preserving! Yep, we’re making loads of homemade presents again this year and started a week or so ago with the chutneys.

This is a recipe we’ve not tried before, but since our garden produced a huge amount of green tomatoes that weren’t about to ripen any time soon, we decided to use them up this way. This recipe is incredibly simple, and a great induction to the world of chutney making.

You will need

Plenty of jars- we ended up using about 12 180ml jars and a couple of random large ones we had hanging around, too. You’ll need to sterilise these before you put the chutney in (generally, a dishwasher will suffice.. you can also heat them in the oven… google it).

2-3 dried chillis. I’d say add these to taste. Chop them up finely! If you’d prefer it none spicey, just don’t add them.

1 litre malt vinegar

1.5-2kg green tomatoes, chopped up.

250g of raisins

10-15g of fresh ginger, grated.

400-500g of chopped, peeled and cored apple

1 large onion, chopped finely

450g of shallots chopped finely

500g brown sugar (I used a really sticky brown muscovado for this, I just think it adds extra flavour and colour).

2tsp salt

You’ll find the most taxing part of this recipe is chopping everything.

Right, now you have all your ingredients prepared, put them all in a huge preserving pan (ie. the biggest, heaviest bottomed pan you have.. we have an amazing pan that we use for soup, home brews and preserving).

Turn up the heat and simmer until it’s reached the consistency you like, ours took little over 1 hour, but so long as it looks like a chutney and everything is softened then it’ll be great.

Let it cool for a little while until it’s the same temp as the jars, if you’ve put the jars in the oven this is just a few minutes after turning the heat off. Put the lids on and store them in a cool dark cupboard.

You should leave the chutney at least a month before eating it (this lets the flavours mature), and an unopened jar will last around 6 months to a year (if you can resist eating it for that long!).

Hey there! I’m Kim. I help creative businesses and brands discover their online potential. I offer creative services, guides & other resources to help you elevate your position online! Keep up with my blog posts for insights into living and working a creative life. Also, swearing.

Get more tips, advice & tutorials on running your online biz by signing up for my newsletter.

your email*

Categories

Instagram

Popular Posts

What they say…

“Working with Kim has been the best decision I have made since starting a blog in the first place. She is always on top of her emails (seriously this woman must be glued to her computer) and whenever I have a panic moment I know she’ll go above and beyond to reply as soon as humanly possible to fix the situation.

Not only is she professional, but she’s got serious skill and an eye for what’s hot in the design world. I am a *slight* control freak, so I was a bit scared of never meeting face-to-face and having all communication go through email, but Kim made me feel cool, calm and collected. The only regret I have is that I didn’t get Kim to help me out sooner!”